


You're Not Alone (Camp Camp - Max x Reader)

by 8cakes



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Camp, Child Abuse, Drama, Drama & Romance, F/F, Fanfiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-02-17 03:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 19,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13068345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/8cakes/pseuds/8cakes
Summary: (TRIGGER WARNING: CONTAINS PHYSICAL ABUSE)You have been abused by your father all your life. Ever since your mother's passing, he's done nothing but make your life a living hell. It was now the last day of school, and there is no way you're spending your summer in that house. You then find a brochure for none other than Camp Campbell! When finally getting there, the other campers aren't so pleased with your almost David-like attitude, especially a certain boy. Little do they know the life you had before you got here, if only someone could understand.. Or does someone ALREADY understand..?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hiii! Welcome to my first Camp Camp fanfic! I have no idea why I'm so obsessed with this show but G O D it's good. I high key love Max he is my favorite character of all time. And I'm just gonna let y'all know that whenever I really really R E A L L Y like something, I read fan fiction. Let me say, I'm very pleased with all these David x reader fanfics, there's also LOADS of them. Everyone loves David...I love David, I can't deny that! He's the best! But I was kinda surprised to see that there aren't as many Max x readers as I thought there would be. There's literally this one website where I read fan fiction from and it's like: "Oh, u want David x reader fanfics?? 800 fanfics! Here ya go, enjoy u big loser!" and on that same website it's like: "Here's literally 3 Max x reader fanfics and they're all discontinued. Enjoy shithead." C'mon guys! Max needs love too! In fact, he probably needs love the most! So that's why I'm writing this, even though this story is gonna be kinda depressing...and intense.. c u z I l i k e t h e a n g s t. U still will probably get a happy ending I think I haven't really planned out the whole thing yet so yea whatever shut up. Anyway, I hope u all enjoy whatever piece of shit I'm about to lay out for u. Give stars, or votes, comments, hearts, whatever these dumb websites use as appreciation symbols. So before I go, I have to let u all know that ALL THE CAMPERS ARE ABOUT 13 OR 14 AND NOT 10 SO IT'S NOT WEIRD TO DATE YAAAY BYE HAVE FUN READING.

You stared at your own front door, contemplating if you should either go inside, or just go anywhere else. Today was the last day of school, and you always dreaded this day of the year, while other kids felt the complete opposite. Another summer break meant another whole summer with... _him._  

Him, as in, your father. You were terrified of your own father, you have been ever since you were born. The day you were born, was the same day your mother died, due to complications after giving birth, and he blamed you for everything. He called you a murderer, a monster, he even told you he shouldn't have brought you home with him from the hospital on that day. He absolutely hates you, and is definitely not afraid to show just how much he hates you. 

This has not only fucked up your mental state, but your physical state as well. That's right; he hits you. He hits you on almost a daily basis, whenever he can. Hell, last summer you were taken to the hospital he hurt you so bad. Some strangers found you in your very bad condition while trying to run away in the middle of the night. Once the doctors contacted your dad about the situation and asked you what happened, you had to tell them a stray dog attacked you while you were walking to the store. 

This is why you try to avoid him as much as possible. Staying in your room and keeping the door locked is what you mostly do in that house, and you hated it. Why couldn't there be a year round school or something? Anything that would keep you far, far away from the man living with you, yet still having a roof over your head.

You were snapped out of your thoughts when you heard a weird noise from behind. You turned around to see a small booklet blowing away in the wind. Feeling curious, you quickly ran after the booklet, and once reaching it, you snatched it off the ground and looked at the front cover. It was a brochure...for a summer camp. It read:  **'ADVENTURE CAMP'**  in big green letters, and in really small font below that said  _'and more!'_   On the very bottom, were the words: **'CAMPE DIEM!'**  

Your face lit up like a kid's first Christmas as you ran towards your house again. Now without hesitation, you opened the front door and ran up to your room and started to pack your things. However, it wasn't like you had a lot of things anyway, you packed literally all your clothing (which was mostly hoodies and other clothing that could hide your bruises), your necessities, such as a toothbrush, a hair brush, a razor and all that other junk, and before you knew it, you were already done packing. You had a satisfied expression on your face as you looked at your packed luggage case, and looked through the brochure again, this time looking for an address. When finding the address on the second page of the booklet, a smile grew onto your face. Camp Campbell wasn't even that far away from you! It was only about two miles away, which is not a lot for you, considering you do a lot of walking.

_"Welp,_ " you thought, while grabbing your bag and heading downstairs, _"what am I waiting for? Summer camp, here I-"_

"Where do you think you're going?" A voice suddenly boomed behind you after you reached for the front doorknob. Oh no. He's back from work early today.. You quickly spun around to look up at the angry man, you were too scared to reply. "Answer me, you little brat!" He slapped you, resulting tears to form in your eyes. You looked at the floor, and with a shaky hand, you gave him the brochure. He snatched it from you and looked at the cover, "summer camp?" He made a dry chuckle, before crumbling the booklet up and throwing it in the trash, "absolutely fucking not. You don't go _anywhere_  this summer, ya hear? You're grounded for the next 3 months for trying to run away again. I'm not putting up with any of your bullshit." He grabbed your bag and threw it with great force towards the staircase, "unpack, and come back down here for your punishment," he said in a stone cold tone. You still didn't reply to him, but instead, you followed his demand and took your bag, quickly heading back up to your room.

You closed your door and locked it, the tears in your eyes still threatening to fall out. Your face still stings from that slap he gave you earlier. This was your life; pain and torment from one man, ever since the day you first existed in this dumb world. _"What the fuck did I do to deserve this?"_ You thought as you felt a tear roll down your cheek,  _"_ _why can't I just have a normal family, a normal life?! I can't even make friends because of my asshole dad! Fuck everything!"_  You were now full on sobbing, " _why does he blame me? Does he think I **asked**  for mom to drop dead? That I **wanted**  this? That it's **my**  fault they both wanted a child, and after I had come out, he starts acting like he never wanted a fucking child in the first place!? I just want to leave! Is that too much to ask?! I just...want to..."_ 

Your sobbing came to a halt as you looked at your window. Without hesitation, you ran to the window and unlocked it. You opened it to reveal the dark outdoors, _"good thing I remember the address!"_ You took your bag and chucked it out the window, hitting the ground with a large  **'thud!'**  

You smiled as you looked below at your freedom, the height not even fazing you. You gingerly stepped out the window and sat on the edge once both your legs were out. You took a deep breath in, assuring yourself this is the right thing to do and that  you won't regret it. You swiftly pushed yourself out of the window, and braced yourself for the impact below.

You landed in a bush, a prickly one. You quickly stood up and checked yourself for bleeding. Luckily for you, you actually weren't bleeding anywhere. However, walking over to your bag was not good on your left leg. You stumbled a bit after the sudden jab of pain that shot through the area. You huffed at yourself, _"hurting your leg is nothing compared to what might've happened if you went back downstairs, so suck it up and start moving."_  You grabbed your bag and slung it over your shoulder. Turning around, you took one last look at your now former house. You smiled at it...before flipping it the bird. You snickered as you started to run, you avoided limping even though your leg hurt like hell. While running, you looked over your shoulder to shout, "have a nice life, cocksucker!" 

Finally, you were free, free from _him_! You were going to a place where people actually care about children, and feed them! You started sprinting faster at the thought of eating a meal that wasn't oxygen or complete garbage, and your smile would not leave your face. 

_"Goodbye hell, and hello Camp Campbell!"_


	2. Chapter 2

It felt like it had taken forever, but you finally made it to Camp Campbell. On the way, your leg was really starting to hurt, so you walked most of the trip, causing your extended journey. You started to head towards the camp site. The sun was just starting to rise, which meant everyone was probably asleep at the moment. Getting closer, you read the sign of the place; it said: **"CAMP CAMP."**  Oh wait. No, it said: **"CAMP CAMPBELL"** except the 'bell' part was practically nonexistent. Now that you have a closer look at the place, it actually looks kinda shitty. Though you'd much rather be anywhere else than your dreadful house, so this camp would have to do.

You yawned as you started to look for any adults around. You had forgotten how tired you were; not even a wink of sleep for more than 24 hours. You must look awful, you sure felt awful. But when was the last time you _didn't_   feel awful about yourself? 

Before you could think further, you looked to your right to hear a door slam open from a nearby camp house. You watched a man step outside in one swift step, he looked at the sky with his hands on his hips, and wearing the biggest smile you have ever seen on a human being. You stared at the man in awe as he took a deep breath in, before shouting, "good morning, world! It's another beautiful day in Camp Campbell!"

The tall man looked to his left, and his smile was immediately replaced with a look of confusion. You sheepishly smiled and waved, which caused the man's beaming grin to return once again. He waved back and walked towards you, "hi there!" He said in a cheerful tone, "what brings you down here in this neck of the woods, little lady?"

"I'm uh.." You hadn't had a lie planned out yet as to why you were here without an adult, or without telling anyone you were even showing up, so you just quickly spurred out, "m-my dad signed me up for the adventure camp.. My papers must have gotten lost in the mail..or something." 

"Well, that's quite alright! I'll just contact your da-"

"You can't contact him!" You quickly interrupted, startling the man from your sudden outburst. You made another sheepish grin once realizing how freaked out you sounded. "Y-you can't contact him..because he's on a summer cruise! Th-there's no service there, plus I don't even know his number..hehe." 

The man was quiet for a few moments, until replying with, "okay.. Well, we can sort this out once he comes to pick you up!"

_"If that'll ever happen,"_  you thought to yourself.

 He suddenly got into a salute position, "welcome, new camper! My name is David, your camp head-counselor!"

"I'm Y/n," you replied with a small smile.

"You're going to _love_  Camp Campbell, Y/n! Let me show you where the other campers are!" He noticed your bag, and reached out to take it from you, "oh, let me take that to your tent! Your tent is number 11, I'll show you after your first daily camp session, you know, for the camp you or your parents signed you up for. But first, let's go to the mess hall so you can meet the others! Follow me!"

You started to follow David toward the 'mess hall' building. _"This guy is really nice,"_ you thought, _"maybe this place won't be as shitty as I thought it would be. I think I just hit the jackpot, good job, me!"_  

"Gooood morning, campers!" David exclaimed in a bubbly tone as he opened the doors. Your excitement was quickly drained away as you watched a complete shit show unfold involving a bunch of kids your age, and a woman who was throwing things at the children.

"NURF, PUT THAT FUCKING KNIFE DOWN!" You heard the woman scream.

"NO! YOU'RE NOT MY MOM!" The boy with the knife replied angrily.

David pinched the bridge of his nose, "oh dear.. Y/n, I'm so sorry that this is your first impression of Camp Campbell, but trust me when I say that..that.. Oh who am I kidding, it's always like this."

Not knowing how to reply to David, you started to walk forward and into the mess hall. You watched one kid suddenly look straight at you, then two, then three, and pretty soon the whole room had their eyes on you, along with being completely silent. You started to feel really uncomfortable, so you put your hands into the pockets of your f/c hoodie, while slowly taking a step back.

David saved the day by showing up next to you once again, "campers, and my lovely co-counselor, Gwen, I'd like you all to meet our newest recruit, Y/n! Let's all say hello and make her feel welcomed here at Camp Campbell!"

"Howdy, Y/n!" A kid in a space suit greeted you, you smiled and waved in return. Noticing all the kids going back to what they were doing, this time more calmly, you looked back up at David, mentally asking him what you should do now.

"Now's your chance to make some new friends! I'm giving everyone 15 more minutes on their activity before we start our daily camp sessions! Have fun, Y/n!"

You turned back to the tables filled with kids as David walked away, and started walking towards anyone who looked like a nice person. You headed towards the kid in the space suit, since he was the only one to actually say hi to you, but your trip to making a friend was delayed after you felt the back of your hood being yanked. You stumbled a bit, the pain from your leg came back and you quickly grabbed the edge of a nearby table before you could fall flat on your bum. You turned around with an irritated expression on your face to see a boy about your age, with black hair, tan skin, and aqua colored eyes. 

"Hey, new kid," the boy said with a smirk, "welcome to the shittiest place on earth."

You scoffed, "please, this is _anything_ but the shittiest place on earth."

"You're definitely gonna regret saying that an hour from now, this place is a straight up hell-hole," the boy crossed him arms, having an uninterested expression plastered on his face, "I suggest you leave while you still can... On second thought, why don't you let me tag along with your parents? I could use a ride outta here."

"First of all," your tone was stern, and you crossed your arms as well, "I walked here. Second, _trust me_  when I say this is _not_  a shitty place. I've been to worse..far worse."

"..Kay. Go kiss David's ass some more, why don't you? Since you seem to like this place _so much_  not even being here for 20 minutes, don't come crawling back to me once you finally realize this camp is actual shit and how I was completely right, because all I'm gonna say is 'I told you so.' See ya, David 2.0."

The boy walked away, leaving you with a furious expression on your face. Who does that guy think he is? He doesn't know a single thing about you, and yet he was all up in your face like he could read you like a book cover. Well, he must can't read, because he had read your cover _completely wrong_...


	3. Chapter 3

"Okay everyone!" David chimed in the mess hall filled with bored children, "it's time to start your daily camp sessions! Let's get to it, campers!"

Everyone groaned as they all headed outside to their 'camps.' You followed the other kids outside. However, you stopped following them after they all went in separate directions and into different...'camps.' 

"Hello, Y/n! I see you've found our huge variety of selected camps!" David said while him and his co-counselor, Gwen, were walking towards you.

"Yes, our _huge_  variety of _great_  camps," Gwen said in an obvious sarcastic tone, "you'll love 'em all.." She sighed.

"Now _that's_ the spirit, Gwen!" David exclaimed, while side-hugging her.

Gwen squirmed out of his grasp, "I need more ibuprofen.." She muttered to herself while walking away from you two.

_"Hm, she seems happy to be here,"_ you thought sarcastically.

David rubbed the back of his neck, "well, now that you've met Gwen..hehe," he put his hands on his hips, "which one of these amazing camps did you or your dad sign you up for?"

Your mind was blank for a moment, until you remembered that brochure you found. It did say 'adventure camp', though you wouldn't have minded going with any other camp. But, what the hell, adventures were fun, why not?

"Adventure cam-" You began to say, but you were quickly cut off due to a girl with green hair, pink eyes, and overalls jumping in between you and David, seemingly appearing out of no where. You and David made a quick scream, startled by her sudden presence.

"Did somebody say adventure?! Where?! Can I come?! I promise I won't bark at the squirrels this time!" 

You stared at the girl in astonishment while she bounced around the place asking questions over questions. You have never seen anyone so energetic without consuming a great amount of caffeine. 

David nervously chucked, and kneeled down to her level, "there's no adventure right now, Nikki, but there will be in a few moments!" He stood back up and opened his arms wide in your direction, as a way of revealing yourself. "Meet your new adventure buddy, Y/n!"

"Adventure..buddy?" The girl who you supposed name was Nikki, said slowly and quietly. You saw her eyes slowly lighting up, and her grin starting to increase in size.

"Yep! You two have a swell time now!" David quickly said as he noticed Nurf with another knife, and hastily headed away from you both, "did you pick the lock on my utensil drawer again, Nurf?!" His voice faded away, and you were left with the girl giving you a weird vibe just with that look on her face.

"H-hi, Nikki.." You greeted her with a sheepish smile, feeling slightly uncomfortable at how much she seemed to be gawking at you. Before you could comprehend what had just happened, you were already on the ground, tackled by Nikki, who was on top of you.

"We're gonna go on so many adventures, Y/n! You and me, adventure buddies for life! ABFL, if you prefer. I've been waiting for this moment in my life so long, I didn't even know I was waiting for it! Oh, oh! I actually have an adventure we could go on right now! First, we need to sneak into Nerris' secret room in her castle-"

"What the hell are you doing to the new girl, Nikki?" You heard an unfamiliar voice say. Nikki got off of you, and you sat up to see a tall boy with a brown afro, blue eyes, and a yellow shirt.

"Hi, Neil!" Nikki waved at him, "I was just talking to my ABFL over here, discussing our latest adventure, you know how it is.."

"ABFL?" The boy asked with a confused look on his face.

"Adventure buddy for life," you said with a nervous grin as you stood up from the grass.

"Not that you would care, AC lover!" Nikki crossed her arms, not wanting the science boy to ruin the fun of adventures for her.

The boy named Neil gave her an unamused look, "you're right. I don't," he turned to you, "so, what's your story?"

"Huh?" You tilted your head at his question.

"I mean why were you forced to come here against your will? Were your parents also stupid enough to bring you to this miserable place we call Camp Campbell out of all the better summer camps in the state?"

Again with the negativity! You're starting to feel pretty bad for David, since a large portion of the campers and even his own co-counselor are all agreeing that this place sucks for a reason you haven't even found yet!

"I don't understand why everyone is saying such negative stuff about this place," you said while shrugging, "it looks fine to me." 

"That's because you haven't been to lunch yet!" Nikki chimed in while nudging you, "ooh boy, that sweet potato salad the Quartermaster always makes is awful, but it's my favorite thing to have on Thursdays! I practically eat it all! Hm, I think I might actually have a love-hate thing going on.."

"That isn't sweet potato salad, Nikki," Neil bluntly said.

Nikki slowly caressed her chin, "well, that explains two things.."

Ignoring her, Neil went back to you, "take a long, hard look at the place, Y/n. Look at the so called 'camps' with equipment and props that are nearly twenty years old! Look at all the idiots you have to completely waste your summer talking to! Not only does the condition of this place suck, but also the owner is a sketchy asshole being chased by the authorities that comes here to shelter himself from the C.I.A who constantly fire guns on the camp ground!"

You stood there, dumbfounded, having no idea how to reply, so he continued, "you're probably wondering why everyone was staring at you like you were some sort of freak earlier at the mess hall," he saw you slowly nod, "well, that's because the last time we had a new camper...was 3 (or 4) years ago, and that kid didn't even last a day here! Most of us were just forced to keep coming back here every summer because of the stupidity and obliviousness of our parents. I've been wasting my summers here, instead of an air-conditioned lab in an actual science camp ever since I was ten years old! Plus there's these weird bugs that only come out at night and are gigantic and gross.." 

"You're such a nerd!" Nikki retorted, only paying attention to his last two sentences, "I like the bugs, they taste great here, thank you very much."

"Well, Neil, after everything you just vented to me about, I still think this place is pretty alright for my standards, and I'm gonna stay here the whole time," you replied in a confident tone, while your thoughts said the opposite, _"not that I have a choice..either this, or be homeless."_

"Your standards must be very low then.." Neil said as he put his hands on his hips. 

"..Yeah," you said quietly, looking at your shoes. You knew what he said was very true, but you still felt bad about it.

"Neil, Nikki, there you are," you heard a third person approach, "let's go throw tomatoes at Preston's dumb new play, it-" they cut them self off, and you looked up from your shoes to see the same boy you had encountered earlier looking straight at you. You both glared at each other the same exact time, "what are you guys doing talking to Little-Miss-Kiss-Ass? You'll catch her David Disease," he smirked as your face fell at his statement, but you quickly fixed it up into another glare, hopefully before he could notice.

Nikki stood next to you, "I think you mean my ABFL, which stands for adven-"

"Shut up. I don't care. Let's just go." The boy started to walk away, Neil and Nikki tagging along with him.

You watched them all walk away together. So much for making friends.. That kid just _had_  to ruin it for you, didn't he? What was his deal anyway? 

You sighed, trying to assure yourself,  _"I'm still in better hands than I was in back home, no point in leaving when I've already got a place to sleep and eat. That's all that matters..."_  

You suddenly heard laughter from two other kids nearby who were playing and having fun. You had always envied a friendship like that. You were beginning to feel a little bit of deja vu, and not the good kind.  It's starting to feel like you were at school all over again..


	4. Chapter 4

The last activity of the day had just ended, and you were on your way to your tent. The rest of the day seemed to fly by for you. After Nikki and Neil had left with that annoying boy who's name you still didn't know, you were kinda just by yourself the rest of the time. You had tried to make other friends, and they let you in on their conversations, but you felt like you were kinda just there watching them talk, too scared to say something during the moments they fell silent. When you finally did think of something to add, they would immediately talk about something else before you had the chance to open your mouth. So with that, you just gave up and was left with just you and your own thoughts, just like school.

_"What is wrong with me?"_ You had thought to yourself, _"Why can't I ever be outgoing like everyone else? It's not that hard, Y/n!"_  

Finding your tent, you started to walk towards it, getting more and more anxious to finally go to sleep the closer you got. And here you were, tent number 11. You reached for the zipper of the tent to open it, you couldn't wait to-

"The fuck do you think you're doing?" Great. You knew your day wouldn't be able to end that easily. Here he was once again, being annoying as always. 

You turned around and gave him an annoyed expression, "I'm going to sleep. In my tent. So go away."

He rolled his eyes, "that's _my_  tent, genius," he retorted in an irritated tone.

"Oh yeah?" You looked back at the tent number. It was still number 11. You turned back to him, crossing your arms, "if this is _your_  tent, why did David tell me _my_  tent was number 11?" 

"You're probably slowly going deaf and heard him wrong, because as long as I've been in this god forsaken place, _this_  has always been _my_  tent." He walked towards the tent, shoving you out of the way to get to the zipper. "And I'm about to prove to you that you better stock up on money for that hearing aid," He opened the tent, and saw the familiar interior, "Look, all of _my_ stuff is in here, and I don't see a single thing that could possibly belong to..." He suddenly cut himself off, and you saw his eyes widen and his mouth go slightly agape. Getting curious, you poked your head into the tent along with his, and you instantly saw your bag in the tent, next to his own stuff. "What the..-"

"I see you two have noticed our tent situation we're having right now," David stepped in the conversation. You and the boy turned around to face him, both with big scowls on your faces. He nervously chuckled, and continued, "Now before you both start yelling at me, just know that this is only temporary. I've just ordered a new tent online and it should be here in about 3 to 5 days. But for now, you two are officially tent buddies!"

You noticed the boy's right eye twitch, and you instantly took a step away from him.

"Isn't this great, Max?" David asked, taking a step back as well, "you're going to have a 3 to 5 day sleepover with our brand new camper! I bet you can't wait to _get along_  with Y/n, and I'm sure she can't wait either.."

The boy, you now knew as Max, eye twitched some more, and his face even turned a little red. Until suddenly, he snapped back to normal, but he was smiling. "You're right, David," he said in an unnaturally happy tone, "this _is_ great..." His smile slowly started to turn into a jaw clench, and his eyebrows furrowed, "...is what I would say if I were _fucking insane_! David, you idiot! Why would you choose _me_  of all people to have this overbearing and annoying moron as my tent buddy? Why couldn't you give her to Nikki, or at least try and find someone that actually likes her?"

That was it. You were done letting this asshole walk all over you and not expect you to say a goddamn thing about it. You won't let this happen again.

"Y'know, _Max_ ," you started, he and David both turned to you, not expecting you to say a thing, just as you thought, "I recently read an article about dogs. And in that article, I read about the most common names for a male dog to have; and the name that took the number one spot...was  _Max_."

Max had an unamused look on his face, "Okay? What's your point?"

"I suggest you lay off me before I start calling you _bastard_."

Max did not expect that from you, and David _definitely_  didn't expect that to come from you. Not knowing what to do, Max almost choked with his next comeback.

"Yeah? Well.. I suggest _you_  lay off _me_  before I start calling you bi-"

"That's quite enough, you two!" David cut Max off and attempted to glare at you both, "I'm very disappointed in both of you for not even _trying_  to give each other a chance in friendship!"

"What else is new?" Max commented to himself while crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. 

"Max," David knelt down to the 13 (or 14) year old boy's level, "I know you may not be pleased with my decision, but I think it would be best if you _at least_  tried to get along with our new camper. I saw the way you were treating her earlier today, and this is not how you are supposed to represent Camp Campbell to our new member. I'm sure that if you just try to get to know her, you might find out you have a lot more in common than you thought, you'll never know until you just _try_. Now, what d'ya say?"

"In your dreams, David," you suddenly butted in, with your bag slung over your shoulder, "there is no way I'll _ever_  share a tent with _him_. I'd rather sleep outside with those weird bugs that only come out at night that people keep telling me about. According to Nikki, they taste great."

David stood up and put his hands on his hips, "as your head-counselor, and the boss of you, I demand you both to be tent buddies until the day Y/n's new tent arrives."

"C'mon, David, when was there a time that I ever listened to you?" Max asked with a smirk.

"There will be consequences if you don't follow my orders."

"I'm already in hell, what else could you possibly do? Make us get on the ground and give you fifty? Murder us? Get the Quartermaster to guard the tent to make sure we don't escape in the middle of the night or something?"

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

"I can't believe he got the Quartermaster to guard the tent to make sure we don't escape in the middle of the night or something.." Max said to himself while sitting as far away from you as possible in the tent. 

You heard him, but you didn't dare reply back. Why did he hate you so much? All you ever did was say the camp wasn't shitty, and now he suddenly seems to have a stick up his ass every time he looks at you. Whatever, you had long enough of a day, it was about time to hit the hay. You got up from where you were sitting and walked towards your bag. Not caring that someone was watching, you pulled out your stuffed (favorite animal), and started back towards your blanket and pillow.

"You bring a stuffed animal to bed?" You heard Max ask, in a surprised tone, rather than the mocking one you thought you would get from him.

You still sharply turned around and glared, "yeah, what's it to you? Gonna tell all your friends and laugh at me?" You turned back around from him, and sat on top of your blanket criss-cross style, putting your stuffed (favorite animal) under your blanket, hiding it. "Cool, just don't expect much of a reaction from me," you looked down at your lap, "I'm already done with this place."

Max felt something weird in his chest when he noticed your stuffed animal. He couldn't tell if he liked that feeling or not, it certainly wasn't painful, it was.. _weird._  He never had this feeling before, was he dying? He quickly snapped out of his thoughts to look at Mr. Honeynuts behind him. Who is Mr. Honeynuts, you ask? Oh, only Max's teddy bear that he goes to sleep with every night..  Turning back to you, who was now tucked into your blanket, he decided to reply to you after those few moments of silence. 

"N-no, I..." Max began, which actually caught your attention. You had a look of anticipation on your face, which only caused Max to choke up more. After moments of not being able to word what he wanted to say to you, he gave up and quickly looked away from you, his eyebrows furrowed. "Whatever. I'm going to sleep," he grumbled, getting under his own blanket and putting his head on his pillow in the direction away from you. 

"O-okay. Me too," You replied, disappointment in your tone. You wanted to know what he was gonna say so badly, and he just threw it all out the window. What is with this kid?

"Well, aren't you a special snowflake?" He asked with obvious sarcasm. 

It seems you're already back at square one. Welp, you _almost_ got somewhere. It might be best for you to try and stay on his good side the rest of the time you're here. Not for his sake, but for your own.

"Goodnight, Max.."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Heyo! Y'all liking the story so far? Please let me know in the comments section, or give a vote to show me ur enjoying it! :3)

You awoke to the faint sound of birds chirping and the sound of people talking in the distance. Slowly sitting up, you looked around at your surroundings. Quickly remembering where you were, you looked over to Max's bed, that was nothing but a pile of blankets. Weird...he just got up and left? What time was it anyway?

You unzipped the closed tent and stepped out of it, the sun hurting your eyes for a few seconds. You rubbed your eyes, helping you quickly get used to the brightness. No one seemed to be outside right now. It felt weird not seeing the other campers in their usual camps, but what felt even more out of place, was that there was a random car parked in the camp's driveway. It was a familiar looking car, and it gave you nothing but a bad feeling. But you dismissed that thought, and turned back to the camp. Coming to the conclusion that everyone is probably in the mess hall doing an activity, you started to head towards the building.

Opening the doors to the mess hall, you were met with empty tables and not a single face to be seen. What the hell is going on here? Where is everyone? Did they all die or something?! You were about to go back outside to double check if anyone was existing at the moment, but you quickly came to a halt, due to the 'staff only' door of the mess hall slamming open. Of course, out came David with his big goofy grin. However, when he looked down to notice you, his smile slightly faltered.

"Ah, there you are, Y/n! I was wondering where you were!" He said in a nervous tone.

You gave David a skeptical look, "you didn't bother to look in my own tent?" 

He made an obviously forced laugh, which caused your skeptical look to get more intense, "oh, how silly of me! Well, the thought just didn't come to mind I guess!"

You decided to cut the crap on questions that didn't matter anymore, and you just got right to the chase, "David, where is everyone?" You asked, "the camp looks almost completely abandoned!"

David suddenly crouched down to your level, "Y/n, I'm afraid I have some unfortunate news to lay upon you."

"Oh my god everyone's dead?!" You cried as you grabbed at your head, wondering what the hell could have possibly happened to get every single one of them killed.

David quickly shook his head, "what?! No! That's not-"

"Then why did you just avoid my question, _David_?"

"Y/n, that isn't important right no-"

"What did you do to them, _David_?!" You used the same menacing tone.

David stood up and looked down at you, "this isn't about the others!" He paused as your ferocious expression returned back to a neutral state. He sighed, "it's about your-" 

The 'staff only' door opened up once again, this time revealing someone you hoped you would _never_  have to see again...

"I finally found you, Y/n. I was worried sick," your father said in a disgustingly fake gentle tone.

"...It's about your dad who's here for your early pickup," David finished.

Your pupils decreased about ten times in size, as you stared up at the man who made your life a living hell and will actually make it worse in less than a few hours. He walked by your side and grabbed your shaky wrist, giving you the scariest smile you have ever witnessed.

"I'm sad to see you leave Camp Campbell so soon, and I'm sure the other campers will miss you as well," David continued while smiling, seemingly oblivious to your pale face and frightened expression. 

Your dad tugged forcefully at your wrist, causing you to yelp in pain, "you're about to regret what you did really fucking badly," he sneered. 

He was loud enough for David to clearly hear, but he just kept smiling like an idiot, "bye now! You two have a wonderful rest of your summer!" He waved as your father literally dragged your screaming self out of the building.

"Help!" You yelled to David, who seemed to have not heard a thing. It was like he was suddenly a freaking robot. The front doors shut and there was no one else around to save you. It was now up to you and you alone to stop this monster from hurting you again.

You tried kicking your dad's leg as hard as you could, but he was not phased by it one bit. "Let go of me!" You screamed at him, tears threatening to pour out of your blurry eyes, "let me go, you _prick_! _Please!_   _LET ME GO! LET FUCKING GOOO!_ " Your pleads and shouting for help got more intense as he threw you into the passenger seat of the car, and he socked you in the face to immediately shut you up, which worked like a charm.. A temporary charm. He slammed the car door shut and headed over to the driver's seat. "You're a monster!" You quickly continued between loud sobs.

He gave you a hard glare, "god, will you shut the fuck up?" His voice was suddenly weirdly higher, but your anger paid no mind to it.

"I hate you!" 

"What's wrong with you?" he asked as if he didn't know what he's been doing to you for all your life. His voice was definitely different now; you, however, still did not notice this. You tried to swing a punch at him, but failed miserably. He swiftly grabbed your head before you could even blink, and twisted it with great force.

**_*CRACK*_ **

Your whole world went black after that...

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

You shot up from your slumber, shakily breathing. It was pitch black and you felt the tears at the corners of your eyes. Was that...just a dream?

"Thank fucking Christ, you're awake," you squeaked after hearing the sudden voice come from right next to you. "Jesus, calm down, you spaz. It's just me." His tone was full of irritation.

"M-Max?" You croaked out, your tears quickly sucking back into your eyeballs.

"I thought I was gonna have to call an exorcist or something," he replied, "because you would not _wake_  up or _shut_  up."

The feeling of humiliation ran through your mind and body, "I was..talking in my sleep?"

"More like _screaming_  in your sleep," he scoffed, "and you were doing it non stop for almost twenty minutes! I'm surprised you only woke me up, and not the whole camp along with the entire fucking state!"

Oh god, you hoped you didn't say anything important in front of him (or..well.. _screamed_  anything important..) It was bad enough you made _noises_  in your sleep, but _words_  would just take the cake for the worst way to blab out your most deepest and darkest secret! 

"..I-I'm sorry.." Your voice was shaky. You wanted to cry, but you couldn't. Not with Max (of all people) sitting right next to you. "Just had a n-nightmare.."

Max made a quick sigh, "yeah, I could tell, a really intense one," his voice got quieter, almost into a mumble, but you managed to catch what he said, "it was..kinda scary to listen to.."

You were taken aback by his last statement. Didn't this dude hate your guts? Why does he..sound somewhat concerned now? "I-I.. -"

"Just...don't do that again." He cut you off. You were actually kinda glad he cut you off, you had no idea what you were going to say other than apologizing again anyways. "And if you do," Max continued, "don't be surprised if you wake up drenched in ice cold water." You heard him get up from next to you, and you heard his footsteps heading back to his bed. He went back to sleep without another word, unlike you; who stayed up the rest of the night, too scared to close your eyes again...


	6. Chapter 6

**_(A/N: Thank you all so much for the recent support on this story! It really makes my day when I get all these nice comments, and y'all should pat urself on the back for that. :) Enjoy the chapter!)_ **

You didn't know what to do with yourself. All you knew was that there was no way you were going back to sleep after having that shit show of a nightmare. You were sat up on top of your blanket sitting criss-cross style, hugging your stuffed (favorite animal), just waiting for time to pass by. You felt like you've been sitting this way, doing nothing, for hours. However, in reality, it was probably only about 20-30 minutes. 

Being the impatient and easily bored person you are, you stood up from your spot, and tip-toed over to the tent's exit. You slowly, and carefully, unzipped the tent and poked your head outside.

 _"Hm, I guess that creepy Quartermaster guy bailed on watching us for the night,"_ you thought when you noticed no one was around your's and Max's tent. 

Looking up at the sky, you also noticed the sun was rising. You must have had that nightmare probably around 6 am; which was great, because now you don't have to wait for the others to wake up any longer, and you can just continue on with your day and forget all about your first night here.

You saw the counselor's cabin doors open, and out came David in the exact same position as yesterday morning. He probably wasn't expecting anyone else to be awake yet, so you quickly went back to your spot in the tent, and tucked yourself into the blanket, pretending you've been sleeping the whole time.

Minutes later, David finally stuck his head into tent number 11, "wake up, sleepyheads!" He exclaimed with his signature grin, "time to get ready for your Friday activities!"

You sat up, pretending to yawn and acting like you're tired. David smiled at you waking up immediately. You smiled back with half-lidded eyes and waved. 

David turned his attention to Max, who was still sound asleep in his bed, "Max," he said, getting in the tent and grabbing at his blanket, "it's almost 8 o' clock, you need to wake up or else you're gonna miss out on all the fun!"

You heard a muffled, "noooo," from Max in response to David.

"Okay, I guess you leave me no choice!" David said as he yanked the blanket off of Max's body. Max made a loud grunt, and slowly sat up.

"Suck a dick, David," he groggily said, "give me back the blanket. I'll be up in a few weeks."

"Oh c'mon, it's Friday! T.G.I.F! I made sure the activities are gonna be extra exciting today! You and Y/n are gonna have a blast!"

"You say that literally every Friday and I always feel the exact opposite."

Watching these two go back and forth was kinda entertaining. They're both so different, their banter between each other could even be on some sort of TV show...

"Look at Y/n," you suddenly heard David say, snapping you out of your thoughts as he and Max both looked at you, "she woke up almost instantly, because she went to sleep at a good time, which helps to wake up at a good time! So that's why at least 8 hours of sleep is always key! Got it, Max?"

You were close to being mortified, because not only was David's statement the complete opposite of what actually happened, it was also that Max could just spill what really happened last night to save himself without hesitation  Oh no.. If David knew, he would never get off your back. If the rest of the campers knew, everyone would probably start calling you 'scream sleeper' or some other humiliating name, or they would make fun of you for this the rest of the time you're here, or...

"Whatever. Can you get the fuck out now?" Max said bluntly, while putting on his blue hoodie.

 _"He.. didn't tell David.."_  you thought to yourself, _"but why? **I**  would have told David if I were in his shoes! I'm so confused. Why does he want to hurt me sometimes, and **not**  want to hurt me other times? I just don't get it.."_

"Alright, I'll see you two in the mess hall by 8:15!" David replied in a bubbly tone as he stepped out of the tent. However, he poked his head back inside a few seconds later, "also, remember what I said about zipping up your tent before you go to sleep, it's a safety hazard to leave it unzipped in the middle of the night." After that statement, he was gone for good.

"He's fucking stupid," Max mumbled, presumably to himself, "I made sure I zipped the tent before sleeping."

 _"Whoops,"_  you thought once realizing you forgot to zip up the tent after seeing David step out his cabin.

You were caught off guard when Max suddenly turned to face you, "you uh...coming with?"

Now that question _really_  caught you off guard, "w-what?"

Max sighed in slight aggravation, "to the mess hall? To do dumbass activities?"

"Oh..sure..." You replied in more of an unsure tone. You looked down at what you were wearing. Straight up pajamas. "But.. I need to change first," you said while blushing a little.

Max nodded, "kay. Just don't take forever, or else I'm ditching."

"I won't be long," you said, expecting him to turn around and leave. But the weird thing was, he just...stood there. With no expression, it was like he was just waiting for you to..start changing. Your blushing became a little more intense, "uh, Max?"

"Hm?"

Ugh, are you gonna have to spell it out for him? This is _not_  gonna be fun. You avoided eye contact with your next statement, "I-I need to... _change_."

That neutral expression only lasted for a few more seconds, until he quickly tensed up. "O-oh.. _That's_  what you meant, okay.."

You gave him a confused, but almost an angry look, "what the fuck did you _think_ I meant?"

"I thought you meant like, I dunno, just throwing something over your shirt." He said, looking at the ground while putting his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

"It's too hot outside, and I hate sweating," you replied.

"Yeah, same." 

Max seemed to be acting a little weird. He was acting..a lot nicer than he was last night. What happened to him? "Anyway," he continued, "I'll just be outside the tent, if you take more than a minute, I'm out."

"Alright."  

With that, Max stepped out of the tent, leaving you to finally change.

You opened your bag and pulled out a (favorite color) hoodie and some jeans. Satisfied with your choice of an outfit, you slowly pulled off your shirt, exposing all the bruises and scars on your body. 

You cringed at your own bare arms; they were full of bruises and they looked awful. Your waist had a big scar across it due to your dad "accidentally" tripping into you with a sharp ass knife in his hand. Fucking pathetic. 

There was another scar on your left shoulder, from when he threw a big glass bottle at the floor in front of you, causing the glass to shatter all over the place, but mostly all over your body and face. And _you_ were the one that had to clean up the mess of glass shards, alcohol, and the pools of your own blood off the floor. You remembered that day very clearly, it hurt so bad picking out the glass shards from all over your face and body. Your house didn't even have the right materials to treat your open wounds, it was amazing how none of them got infected..  And you couldn't forget about the stitches on your upper chest and legs, from that time last summer. It was the worst beating of them all..

Alright, it was about time you stop thinking about the things this man has done to you in the past. You're safe now, and the trauma he's caused is over..

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

You stepped outside of the tent to meet up with Max.

"Good. You're on time," he said, "let's go."

You followed him towards the mess hall without a word. You noticed that he had a look on his face that meant he wanted to say something, but didn't know how. He seemed to be doing this a lot when it came to you lately, especially after...last night. 

"So.." You tried to start a conversation with him, to see if he would spill, "what kind of camp did you sign up for?"

"None," he glared, "you think I _wanted_  to stay at a shitty summer camp for 3 more months of my life?" He seemed genuinely offended by your question, "my parents have been taking me here every summer just to get rid of me. No matter how much I tell them I don't wanna come back here and see David's stupid face, they still don't give a shit because it's cheap, and they'll do anything to not be responsible for me."

"O-oh," you were internally fascinated with what you were just told, you could.. _relate_. You could relate..to _Max._ "I'm so sorry..-"

"Whatever," he grumbled before grabbing the door handles of the mess hall building, "morons like you could never understand anyways.." He opened the door, and went inside without waiting for you to enter as well. 

You stared at the closed door in front of you, deep in thought.

 _"But I **do**  understand, Max,"_ you thought, _"I understand **far more**  than you think..dumbass."_


	7. Chapter 7

**(A/N: Happy Holidays! Hope you all enjoy this next chapter! <3)**

You entered the mess hall to face the rest of the campers, who seemed to be socializing with each other. Looking at one of the tables, you noticed Nikki, Neil, and Max. They all looked like they were having a calm conversation. 

 _"This boy confuses me so much,"_  you thought in frustration, _"why is it so hard for **me**  to talk to him, but he lets literally any other person talk to him without a care in the world?"_ 

Nikki caught you staring at the trio, and excitedly waved, "ABFL! We were just talking abo- owww!!!" She was cut off by Max elbowing her in the rib. You tilted your head at Nikki's unfinished statement. They were talking about _you_? 

Max looked a little nervous, until he looked at you and sneered, "y-yeah! We were talking about how much you suck!"

Your confused expression turned into an unamused one, and you flipped him the bird without hesitation. The group fell silent as you turned around and looked for someone else to talk to..

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

As you turned around, looking for someone else to talk to, Max put his head in his hands, having the look of severe aggravation on his face.

"You have some kind of problem with Y/n?" Neil asked the frustrated boy.

"Yeah," Nikki chimed in, "you've been non stop about her ever since Preston's play. You two got beef?"

"..Beef?" Neil questioned.

"Y'know, when people have a grudge against each other for some particular re-"

"No!" Max cut her off and picked up his head, glaring at both of them, "we don't have _beef,_ "

"Then why do you seem to hate her so much?" Neil asked again, confused by Max's weird behavior.

"Listen, Neil," Max crossed his arms, "I hate everyone and everything. Y/n isn't special in any way." 

"Oh really?" Neil crossed his arms as well, "if she's not so special, why won't you stop talking about her?"

"Yeah, did talking about David get too boring or something?" Nikki chimed in once again, "'cause you're not _nearly_  as annoying talking about him as you are talking about Y/n."

"I have to agree with Nikki here, you have been pretty annoying," Neil commented.

"Okay, I get the fucking point!" Max exclaimed, feeling his face getting a little red from either agitation or embarassment.

"What's the big deal if there's no problem then?" Nikki asked.

Max put his head in his hands again, "she just.. I don't fucking know, she makes me feel weird!" He didn't notice his friends's eyes slightly widen, so he continued, "like, I don't know how to describe it, but she makes me feel a.. a  _certain_ way, and it's.. just fucking weird! ..It's not the weird feeling of when Daniel the idiot cultist was here, or that time we were with Billy on the Woodscouts boat. It's like..not a good feeling, but also.. not a bad one.." 

"So.." Neil began, "there _isn't_ any of this _beef?_ "

"..No!!!" Max grunted, "Jesus Christ, it's like I wanna be nice to her or some shit, 'cause we have to stay in the same tent for God knows how long, and I'm trying to be nice, but every chance I get to talk to her, I get that same feeling and I just say some rude shit, and then she'll say some rude shit back, which will make me say something ruder; and I just can't break the fucking cycle!"

Nikki and Neil were staring, dumbfounded at him. Was Max..spilling his guts to them? Has he ever done this before? Was this even Max they were talking to?

Thinking over everything that Max had said, Nikki slowly smiled, coming to an amazing conclusion.

"I think I know _exactly_ what's going on here, Max."

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

You walked around other tables, looking for anyone who was willing to talk to you. You looked at the kids you kinda talked to yesterday during Preston's play. You definitely weren't going to talk to Ered or anyone that's close with her, because yesterday you overheard her calling you 'uncool' and the kids around her were agreeing.

It didn't really make you feel more badly about yourself, it just made you feel more deja vu from school. You didn't really know how to stand out from others, you were scared to make friends, which is why it was understandable that you would be the perfect bullying target, though you won't let this happen. When the time comes and things get bad, you always rely on yourself to fight back. It's not like anyone else is willing to do the fighting for you anyways.

Seeing that same space kid from yesterday, sitting at an empty table, you decided to walk over and finally introduce yourself face-to-face. 

The space kid watched you reach his table, and he smiled and waved. He kind of reminded you of yourself a little bit, the loner part at least. But other than that, he still looked happy with himself, he has the confidence you wish you could have even a little bit of. The space kid looked like he was about to greet you, until he was suddenly grabbed by the leg, by a larger kid with red hair and a yellow shirt that was two sizes too small for him. 

"Gimme your lunch money, fish bowl!" The red haired boy sneered.

"But Nurf, we don't pay for lunch here. It's a summer camp," space kid replied, in a very calm tone for being held by the leg and upside down.

"Oh yeah.." The boy you now knew as Nurf, completely lost his intimidating look. But it only stayed like this for a few more seconds, until he swiftly pulled a knife out of seemingly no where, and put the knife near the kid's chest, "gimme..erm.. _something!_  Or I'll stab your guts, butt-nut!"

You gasped, _"This kid is out of control! Where are the counselors?!"_ Without thinking, you quickly took action, and marched up to Nurf. If no one else was willing to stand up for this kid, then it had to be someone who has been through something similar... 

"Put him down," you said, loud enough to get his and the space kid's attention.

"I'll put him down when I feel like it!" Nurf pointed his knife at you, "I have emotional issues, and I need to take my anger out on someone at least four times a day; so you better stay outta this unless _you_ wanna be stabbed too!"

"Put him down, or else I'm finding the counselors!" You said, not afraid one bit by his threat.

"Yeah!" Chanted the space kid, "put me down, or else she's finding th-" He was dropped to the floor mid sentence. Nurf had a hard glare on you.

"Jeez, you're such a buzzkill. No wonder everyone around here's calling you David 2.0!" He humphed as he walked away, grumbling some curse words along with that. Space kid got up and dusted himself off, while turning to face you.

"Wow, if you hadn't stopped him, I probably would've gone somewhere beyond space, if you get what I mean," he stuck his hand out to you, "thanks a lot, Dav- uhh, Y/n!"

Your face fell, literally  _everyone_  has been calling you David 2.0. All you ever said was that the camp wasn't shit! Sure, the camp wasn't the best, it really wasn't; but saying _one_  nice thing about it could cause you to be called dumbass names by the entire camp?! 

You turned away from the space kid, not bothering to shake his hand, and you walked out of the mess hall. You weren't in the mood for participating in any activities anymore..

**(A/N: Sorry if I ended this one kinda abruptly x3 I felt like I was taking too long updating the story. I kinda slacked off today and yesterday lol. Stay tuned for the next chapter coming soon probably!)**


	8. Chapter 8

"You _looove_ her!" Nikki said in a sing-song voice, clasping her hands together and batting her eyelashes. **  
**

**"..What?!"**  Max's pupils shrunk about ten times in size, his face becoming as red as a tomato. "No! That is complete bullshit!"

"Oh c'mon, Max! Haven't you ever seen any drama/romance movie before? A person that likes someone else usually hides their true feelings about them by being as mean as they could possibly be towards them!" Nikki replied, "your mean-ness is mean-ness of love!"

"This definitely would explain a lot," Neil chimed in.

"Fucking Christ, have you two even met me?!" Max stood up from his seat at the table, and glared down at both of them, "I literally just said minutes ago that I hate everyone, and I _always_ talk about how much I hate everyone! You guys probably think I have a crush on David as well; I've said _loads_ of mean things about him, I must love him too! In fact, I must love _everyone_  because I hate them all so much! Do either of you realize how fucking stupid this argument sounds now?" 

"Are you forgetting what you just told us, Max?" Neil asked, getting a little defensive, "about how you _want_  to be nice to Y/n, but you can't because of this _feeling_  you have when you talk to her?" Max's angry expression slowly neutralized as Neil continued, "That doesn't sound like hatred to me.." He finished with a slightly smug look on his face, causing Max to put a hand through his hair.

"This is amazing!" Nikki squealed, "you better invite me to the wedding! I call dibs on being the flower girl!"

"Shut up!" Max shouted, his angry expression returning, "you're both wrong! Just because I'm trying to give that idiot a chance in being acquainted with me, doesn't mean I'm fucking in love with her!"

"Well, it wasn't this hard and dramatic for you to become _our_  friends.." Nikki commented.

Max's eye twitched for a moment, and he now has an even angrier expression plastered on his face, "You know what? This conversation is over," he stepped away from their table, "talk to me when you two are done being ignorant shits," he then started to head for the door of the mess hall.

While they both watched him walk away, Nikki clasped her hands together again, "aww, he's in denial," she said, her statement earning a look from Neil.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Max reached for the handle of the mess hall door, only to be stopped by someone calling his name.

"Max!" It was David. He was heading over towards Max, which made his anger go almost haywire.

"What the fuck do you want, David?!" He spat.

David seemed unfazed by his venomous tone, "We're about to start the activities now, and I've noticed that Y/n is not with us. Do you have any idea where she could be?"

"Hell if I know, she's probably out in the forest befriending the deers and singing to the birds, or some other shit that'll make me vomit." Max rolled his eyes.

"Well then, I'm now assigning you to be responsible for taking Y/n to where she needs to be when I set up events, since she's new here and all."

"You think I didn't already take her here? Maybe she finally opened her eyes and realized this camp fucking sucks and decided to bail. Ever thought about that, camp-man?"

"Max, please," David was now starting to get a little agitated.

"I'm just saying," Max went on, "it would be a completely understandable reason, considering this place is quite the shithole."

David put his hand up to his waist, "Alright, I've had it up to here with you, Max," he tried to sound stern, "now you go and look for Y/n, and as soon as you find her, bring her back here. I have to start the activities now, and I don't want her to miss all of the first day fun."

"I'm not looking for that dweeb, David. She's the one that left in the first place; if she wanted to come back she'd know where to go, unless she's even more of an airhead than I thought she was.."

David almost started to look legit angry now, "go and find her, or else you're not coming to the pizza and ice cream party."

Max glared as David started to walk away, "Yeah, sure, take away my rations because I won't find someone for you. What is this, a concentration camp?" Max made an aggressive sigh after noticing David had ignored his last statement. Wanting nothing else to do with the building he was still in at the moment, he finally opened the door and exited the mess hall.

_"Whatever, I don't need pizza and ice cream,"_  Max thought on his way out, _"all I need is a long, 12 hour nap..."_

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

You headed back to your tent after your little incident with Nurf and the space kid. You sat down on your blanket, and heavily sighed. Thinking about your time here, you felt like you've been here forever. But, in reality, you've actually only been here for two days. These past two days, have been kind of shitty for you. The only person who treated you like a normal human being was...well, David probably thinks of you as just a naive child, that's probably why he's so nice to you, or maybe he gets a fat paycheck working here, and is just really happy with all the money he's making... Yeah, you didn't think so either. As for everyone else, you felt as if you were treated like a  dust bunny, either ignored or pushed around. You didn't stand out, no one seemed to like you, you were just...nothing to everyone. Nothing to _any_ one...

You looked over to your bag full of clothes and necessities, and you wondered: was any of this really worth it? Did this really help you in any way? Did running away from your problems and coming here just make your bad past vanish? Your answer was a solid maybe. The place itself wasn't bad granted, it was just...the people, the other campers.. The only one that seemed to want to get along with you was Nikki, but she's with Max, and Max is the person who hates you the most, and you're sharing a tent with him, for Christ's sake! 

As your thoughts started spiraling around inside your head, you felt the tears in the corners of your eyes, and started to get a lump in your throat.

_"Is all of this really that different than back home?"_ You thought to yourself, _"Sure, there's no hitting and there's no abuse, but still my self esteem has never felt so low. I hate this. I hate everyone. I hate my life. I hate life altogether.. I..."_  

You were shocked at yourself, your week hasn't been the greatest, but are you really staring to feel _that_  way about yourself? No, that's insane, it could even be clinically insane. There are people out there that have it worse, all you have to do is ignore everything in your way, and you should be...fine. Just ignore... _all_  your problems. Easy. It'll be just you, and your thoughts from now on. No more-

You suddenly heard someone enter the tent, causing you to quickly sniffle and rub your eyes with your forearm forcefully. 

"Yep, figured you'd be in here, activity skipper," Max said, in a humored tone. You didn't reply, and didn't even bother to look at him. He noticed your behavior, and nervously cleared his throat, "um, you need to go back to the mess hall. David wants you to do the activities or some shit, like right now. So let's go."

"Tell him I don't feel good," you said monotonously, still not looking at him while you spoke, "I could do extra activities with him some other time though, or whatever. Just not now."

"What do you think I am, some kinda Middle Ages bird messenger? Go tell him yourself." Max replied.

"Yeah, alright," you said quietly in response, but internally, you were fuming.

Max scoffed, "what, no comeback? I was expecting something at least mediocre from you, but no, you already seem to be fresh out. That's almost as sad as your social status." Max slightly widened his eyes after saying this, he just knew he had gone too far by the way you flinched.

You quickly stood up after his statement, and grabbed your stuffed (favorite animal), and shoved it into the back of your hood, then you pulled the hood over your head, hiding the toy. Max seemed to be having the look of a mix of agitation and nervousness as you walked towards him.

"C-come on, Y/n, I didn't-" You shoved Max out of the way with your shoulder, exiting the tent without anything but a frown on your face.

_"You fucking idiot,"_  Max thought to himself, _"why the fuck did you do that? She's obviously not okay, and you had to show up just to make things worse,"_  he put his hands in his hoodie pockets, _"I need to fix this, I need to know what her deal is.. I need to know what this feeling is..."_


	9. Chapter 9

You were done; done with everything and everyone. You didn't even know where you were heading to, all you did know was that your feet were taking you in the direction of forward. 

It was sunny outside today, which quickly made you hot due to your big hoodie, but there was no way you were taking the thing off. Noticing a shady tree, you decided to head over to it. It looked like the perfect place to rest and keep your distance from everyone else. It would also be pretty nice if you could get some sleep too, you know you haven't had that in a long while.

Once reaching the tree, you plopped yourself onto the grass and leaned your back against the tree's trunk. You sighed, finally feeling peaceful for the first time in forever, and you let your eyes droop shut. 

You felt yourself slowly blacking out into a nice slumber, until you felt the hood on your head being yanked.

"What the fuck," you grunted, quickly standing up, the hood sliding off of your head. You just knew it would be too good to be true for you to be alone for 5 minutes.

"You didn't think I was done with you, did you, buzzkill bitch?" 

You held your breath for a moment after hearing that all too familiar voice, then you decided to put on your brave face, "what do you want from me, Nurf? An apology?" You looked up at him with a glare, "'Cause you sure as hell aren't getting one, you deserve everything coming your wa-" You cut yourself off after feeling something that was on you fall to the ground. Looking down, you found out it was your stuffed (favorite animal). 

You bent down to quickly pick it back up, but Nurf seemed to be quicker. He shoved you off your feet, causing you to almost fall onto the tree behind you, just missing it by mere centimeters, landing in the grass on your bottom. Before you could comprehend what had just happened, Nurf already had the toy snatched up in his large hands.

He snickered, "a stuffed (favorite animal)? What are you, two years old?"

"Give it back, asshole!" You jumped up on your feet again, and tried to grab the stuffed animal from his hands. He suddenly held the toy up high with one arm, knowing you couldn't even jump that high, and he pulled a knife out of no where again. This time, it didn't make you step away from him. Slightly bringing his arm down, he examined the stuffed animal in his one hand, and he now had an evil smirk on his face.

"This should work as good enough payback," he sneered, "and also for my daily bullying exercises."

Your eyes widened as Nurf brought the knife to the stuffed animal, "No!" You cried, "that's really important to me! Give it back, please!"

He turned to you and glared, "yeah, and you know what's important to me? My reputation, which you almost screwed up completely! Either I stab the (animal) or I stab you!"

"You don't understand, that (animal) is the only thing that makes me happy!" You pleaded, "I'm really sorry about earlier, Nurf. I won't interfere like that again, just please don-"

It was too late. Nurf swiftly inserted his knife into the stuffed (animal), and dragged the knife down, revealing all of its stuffing and opening the stitches. You watched in horror as he dropped the remains of your unfixable stuffed animal onto the grass. He kicked around the stuffing, making a huge mess on the ground while wickedly smiling.

You immediately felt the tears pouring out of your eyes. That toy meant so much to you, and now it's broken. A pile of fabric and stuffing. No one would even recognize it was a/an (animal) anymore. When you said it was the only thing that made you happy, you weren't exaggerating...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was the first day of second grade. As usual, no one wanted anything to do with you.. Well, except for one girl/boy. Her/his name was (best friend's name), and she/he was the first peer of yours to ever treat you with kindness. Because of her/him, second grade was ( and still is) your favorite school year. It was the year you had made your very first friend. 

You two did everything together: you sat at the same table during lunch, you partnered up with only each other in group activities, and you both even had desks next to each other! You two would always tell each other how you would be best friends forever, and never leave one's side. To seal that vow, you pinky promised! 

You finally knew what it was like to have someone care for you, to listen to you and treat you with respect. (Best friend's name) was the person you never thought existed, and it gave you hope in the world. Maybe life wasn't so bad after all...

Well, that friendship quickly came crashing down on one very unfortunate day. (Best friend's name) was moving. Moving to another state. Hundreds of miles away from you.

You were heartbroken. You've only known each other for a solid year, but it felt like you've known each other so much longer. You were crying, your only friend you've ever made...was leaving. What about the pinky promise? She/he told you not to cry, and that maybe one day, they would see each other again. And this is when the stuffed animal comes into place. 

BF/N's mother was great at sewing, she knew how to make the most beautiful sweaters, along with socks, and even stuffed animals. On the day of the move, BF/N gave you that same stuffed (animal), as a memoir of their friendship. It was the first gift you had ever gotten. You hugged her/him and said that you would never ever forget her/him for everything she/he has done to make you feel genuinely happy for the first time...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You silently sobbed, now knowing that your one and only gift was now going to be nothing but a distant memory for the rest of your sad, sad life.

"I'm gonna tell everyone how you cried like a baby over a stuffed animal!" Nurf cackled, "oh boy, this is great. I've never had an easier victim to displease! I think I deserve a reward for this."

Without thinking, you walked towards him eyes full of anger and sadness, "here's your reward," you croaked out, and you kicked him right where the sun don't shine.

Nurf yelped in pain and fell to the ground holding his 'no-no' area, "ah! Y-you fucking cunt! I'm gonna slit your throat and watch you bleed out with the biggest smile on my face!"

"Go fuck yourself, fat-ass," you replied, your tone venomous. You turned around to walk away, but you suddenly felt something slice through the side of your jeans, creating a large tear in that area. No question that it was Nurf's knife, but you weren't scared for a second. "Nice try," you said, "but try harder next time if you want a reaction fro-"

Nurf immediately stood up and grabbed you by the neck, slamming the back of your head into the nearby tree while still holding you.

His tone was deep and villainous, "now that I've got you right where I want you, I don't even have to try to get that reaction," he slowly brought his knife towards your neck, his eyes full of evil intentions, "I'm going to enjoy every second of this."

You squirmed, trying desperately to be released from his grasp. He was choking you, and he was now also going to slit your throat. You have never felt more of an awful deja vu. This is just like home. Just like your dad.. There was no escaping the pain and torment, and if this was the end of it, at least it would all be over. 

"Fuck it," you thought as his knife drew closer to an exposed part of your neck, "I'm ready for you, death.."

"Hey!" A distant voice called out, getting Nurf's attention, while you were trying to choke in tiny breaths of air as his grip slightly loosened, "put her down, asshole," they said.

Nurf growled, "fuck off, Max! I'm clearly not in a functional state of mind right now, and need to be left alone to carry on my violence spree! So excuse me while I slit this bitch's throat!"

Your eyes widened after hearing Nurf confirm that it was Max who told him to put you down... Max!?

"You're gonna kill her?! The fuck's wrong with you?!"

"A lotta shit!!!" Nurf shouted as he pulled the knife up and expected it to drop into your neck, but something had caught his arm... No, someone.

"I'm very, very disappointed in you , Nurf!" David grabbed the knife from Nurf with his free hand, and put it away in a pocket. 

"What the fuck, man?!" Nurf finally released you from his gigantic hands, and you fell to the ground, lightheaded, and gasping for air. 

David turned to Max, "Max, I'm very glad that you took action as soon as you saw this and contacted me about it. I guess you'll be coming to the ice cream pizza party after all!!" David said in his usual bright smile.

"Whoopie.." Max said unenthusiastically. 

David then glared down at Nurf, "now excuse me while I have a word with Nurf.." David put a hand to Nurf's back, and guided him to the counselor's cabin...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max walked over to your sitting form under the tree, and watched as you regained your breathing composure.

"Damn," he put a hand on your shoulder, "I've never seen Nurf act like that before. Well, I mean I have but, not as far as to kill someone..."

You looked up at him blankly, your eyes still red and puffy due to what you have just been through. Max frowned, looking uncharacteristically concerned, and he stuck out his hand for you to grab and be pulled to your feet. You accepted and stood up without a word.

Max looked down at the grass and saw all the stuffing and fabric pieces. You noticed he was staring at the ground, seemingly confused, he probably didn't see that part of the show. Not knowing what else to say or do, you started to walk towards the tent on your own, your hands in the pockets of your hoodie. 

Max quickly caught up to you, and he now knew what he had to say.

"Y/n, about earlier," he began, "a-and, not just like twenty minutes ago earlier, I'm talking the first time we met earlier... I-I was kind of a dick, and... I think we should start over. I wanna give you a chance in being my acquaintance; we are gonna have to share a tent together after all, so we might as well stay on each other's good sides.. or whatever.." You suddenly stopped in your tracks after Max's statement, which made him stop as well. You had that same blank expression on your face, which drew in Max's confusion. He took a few steps closer towards you, "um.. Y/-" 

He was greatly taken aback by the sudden hug you gave him. It made that weird feeling feel even more weird, which he didn't think was possible! Max's face grew a light shade of pink as he awkwardly hugged you back for a few seconds, until you let go.

"Sorry," you said, stepping back, "I just felt like I needed that.."

"D-don't apologize," Max replied, "what just happened to you was fucked up. I get it."

You two continued to walk, "um, thanks a lot for stopping him, by the way. I-if it weren't for you, I might've actually been killed.."

"That's not happening, trust me. Not while I'm he-," Max cut himself off after thinking over what he was just saying, he was shocked at himself. You looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, which suddenly made him really nervous. "..Uhh, D-David assigned me responsible for you. Don't flatter yourself."

"Whoa, where the fuck did that come from?" Max thought to himself.

"Since when do you follow rules from David?" You asked him, snapping him out of the thought.

"Since when do you have the right to shove your nose in my business?" Max asked back.

"Since I was born in a free country," you answered, crossing your arms.

"Whatever," Max muttered, not even wanting to think of a comeback. He was more interested in the feeling he was having when being around you, it was all..warm and fuzzy. And that hug, he..liked it. He wanted to do it again, forever.. Wait just a second! This couldn't possibly mean love, could it? It can't be. It has to be friendship or some shit. Yeah, he could relate to you a little bit, but love? Please! Even David said it himself, 'Max doesn't love anything!' So that's that, Nikki's wrong, Neil's wrong, Max does not love anything, and especially not-

"Max?" You asked. He turned to you and you both realized you were now standing outside of tent number 11. "U-um," you continued nervously, "h-how much did you see?" 

Max stayed silent for a few moments, until replying with, "I.. Kinda followed your footsteps a few minutes after you left. I came over when he was stabbing your stuffed animal, I'm really sorry about that by the way.." Max looked to the ground, feeling extremely awkward having a serious talk with someone, especially with you.. For some reason.

"It's.. Fine," you said, frowning, "it was just a stuffed animal, s-so it doesn't really matter.."

Max suddenly looked up from the ground and had this weird expression on his face, like he had just thought of something. "Let's go inside the tent," he said, "I wanna show you something.."


	10. A/N

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for the slowest update in existence for chapter 10. I'm still not quite done writing it but I have about 1000 words down. I promised my self I would get it done by Saturday but then just my luck, I was diagnosed the the flu! DX So you might be able to understand why I'm not gonna finish the chapter this week, I'm really sorry it's almost been 20 days! I promise promise promise I WILL GET THIS DONE! Just hang in there for me please? :) I thought it would only be acceptable if I told my readers this instead of making them think. Thanks for all your wonderful comments and supportive feedback! ;D


	11. Chapter 10

Without any hesitation, Max headed into the tent, with you following shortly after he was inside. You watched as Max walked over to his bed and started searching around the blankets and pillows until he finally found what he was looking for. You didn't get to make out what the item was before he put it behind his back when he turned to you.

"Listen and listen carefully, 'cause I'm not repeating a single thing I'm about to tell you," he said in a stern tone, "and if you decide to be stupid and spill to someone about this, I will seriously fucking murder you."

You nodded, not even remotely feeling threatened by that...well, threat. There was literally no one here you would be willing to tell and if you did tell anyone, they probably would just be mad at you for being in their presence or something.

Max sighed, "I told everyone I got rid of this thing years ago, so no one can know that I still have it."

You were starting to become skeptical now. What the fuck did this boy have behind his back? A bag of crystal meth? He was certainly acting like that was the case...

"Okay, brace yourself," You couldn't tell if he was saying that to you or to himself, but once you saw what he swiftly pulled out behind his back, you could care less about that thought.

"A... teddy bear.." You whispered, your expression dumbfounded.

Max kept his eyes in the ground, "his name is.." He shut his eyes tight, "Mr. Honeynuts..."

Your eyes widened at the silly name. You could not believe this. Max, of all people, had a teddy bear with the name Mr. Honeynuts. That is the most unlikely shit you've ever heard. You never would have guessed Max had a stuffed animal with him; you didn't even know how to reply to something like this.

"I've had him with me as long as I can remember," Max continued, seemingly trying to hide his embarrassed tone, "my parents... They never gave a shit about my existence, so this bear was the only thing that I felt happiness towards," he looked down at the stuffed bear in his hands, "he was the only one who gave me hope that I could be loved. He was kinda like my sanctuary, whenever I felt sad, he cheered me up." 

"..Wow.." Was all you could manage to say. This was actually insane. You have never related with someone as much as this moment with Max. One of the meanest kids at Camp Campbell, had a soft side, and he was showing it to you.

He looked back up at you and cringed at himself, "that sounded really gay, I know, but there's a reason why I'm showing you this." He paused, looking down at the bear, then back to you. "When I first saw you had a stuffed animal with you, I felt like we kinda had something in common. Like for the first time, I wasn't alone." 

Your frown deepened as he continued, "I don't know what kind of relationship you had with that (favorite animal), but from what I saw, you definitely cared a lot for it. If someone broke Mr. Honeynuts in front of me, I dunno what I would do.." Another pause, "all I'm trying to say is, you didn't deserve that. You didn't deserve anything Nurf did to you, and so.." You watched as Max hesitated, but after a few moments, he handed you Mr. Honeynuts. You slowly took the bear, with a confused expression on your face, while Max's cheeks were a shade of pink, "I want us to share Mr. Honeynuts," he blurted out, "I know it still won't be the same for you, but I hope it's better than nothing."

You looked down at the bear in your hands. It was a little beat up, but you could tell it still meant a lot to Max, no matter the condition of it. Your brain then started to process what he had just told you. He wants to share probably his most prized possession with you, someone he hated just a few hours ago! You felt a mix of many emotions bubble up inside of you. This made no sense, he makes no sense! What is he doing to you and why?

"Yep," Max said, seemingly to break the silence and potentially end your staring contest with the stuffed bear in your hands, "you can thank me later.."

Snapping out of your thoughts, you slowly looked up to face him, "I.." You began, gaining his attention. You fell silent when about two voices in your head started to scream at you.

"Share the bear!"

"No, don't! He's probably planning something!"

"He understands you!"

"It's all a prank!"

"You could have a potential friendship if you just take the fucking bear!"

"He pities you. He doesn't want anything to do with you in reality. You're so stupid to think Max would want to be your friend. No one wants to be your friend.. Get over yourself."

"I can't," you looked to the ground and quickly gave him back the bear.

Max took the bear back with a mix of shock and confusion on his face, "what? Why?"

You sighed, "thanks for offering, Max, but just because we're sharing a tent for a few days, and you just watched me get my ass kicked, doesn't mean you have to force yourself to become my friend because you feel bad for me. You can just go back to calling me David 2.0, that's probably what you really want to do."

Max was silent for a few moments, "Yeah, that's what I wanted to do, before we completely started over earlier! Were you not listening to anything I was saying?" His tone was irritated, and he set Mr. Honeynuts on the ground next to him to make his hands free.

"Face it, Max, you hate me. You only think you like me because we both have a stuffed animal that was important to us. That's it."

You decide to not tell him that you two have another thing in common; which is your home lives. You're never going to tell him though, you're never telling anyone here about your dad.

"Jesus Christ," Max grunted, "Why can't you just let me be nice to you?"

You averted your eyes to the ground, suddenly starting to feel a bit guilty about refusing something he took so much courage out of himself to ask you. Now you started to feel selfish as well. So many emotions, in such a short amount of time...

(A/N July 2018: Woaaahhh guys! I'm really really sorry I took a hiatus and never said anything except for i had the stupid flu. You guys probably thought I died or something and your concerned comments made me feel so happy yet i was like "what have i done" at the same time. The truth was i kinda fell out of the fandom for a bit, I'm still not quite back in it, I only saw the first ep of season 3 and I REALLY need to catch up. The whole season is probably already done by now XD Anyways, I still remember most of my ideas so I'll definitely try to make more chapters soon! I'm so sorry again <3 Thanks for sticking around)


	12. Chapter 11

"Jesus Christ," Max grunted, "Why can't you just let me be nice to you?"

You averted your eyes to the ground, suddenly starting to feel a bit guilty about refusing something he took so much courage out of himself to ask you. Now you started to feel selfish as well. So many emotions, in such a short amount of time...

"I-I don't know," you reply, "I..."

Max sighed and put his hand on your shoulder, snapping you out of your thoughts, "Listen, you need to stop shutting people out, and you need to stop ignoring your surroundings. If you just open your eyes for a second, you'll know that there are people in this camp that care about you just as much as they care about everyone else here.. So-"

"Like who?" You ask, cutting him off.

Max pinched the bridge of his nose, "Oh my fucking god- like me! I care, Y/n!"

You remained silent, not knowing what to do in this situation.

He continued, "There you go, I fucking said it. Happy?"

You really, truly wanted to believe him when he said that. You've been fucked over so many times though, you don't even know who's telling the truth anymore..

"I'm sorry, Max, but I can't-"

"What the fuck else do you want from me?!" He cut you off this time, "I already apologized, we already started over, what else is there to fix?!"

"...Yeah, we started over, but I might never be able to start over with anyone else here!" Your tone started to get defensive, causing Max's expression to calm down. "I can't just forget that you completely ruined my reputation to the whole camp on my first day with your stupid "David 2.0" rumor!" It ruined me! No one wants to be near me, and no one wants anything to do with me because they think I'm annoying!"

"Well, who gives a flying shit what those idiots think?" Max replied, "I would probably feel so much happier if everyone here just stopped talking to me, trust me, I spared you."

"Spared me from what? Having friends? Gee, thanks so much, having people to talk to was definitely not a reason why I came. Trying to have a little fun and get away from my problems was also not a reason why I came. Trying to see how much better my life is without my dad around is de-" You quickly stopped yourself mid-sentence. Hopefully Max didn't catch that last part.

"Listen Y/n, I'm sorry." Max apologized again, sounding a bit annoyed, "I'll clear everything up to everyone as soon as activities start." 

Apparently he didn't... Good. You let out a bit of a shaky sigh. If you keep arguing in this manner, saying things without thinking, then there's a big chance that you will say something bad. Bad as in, you've revealed too much! That was way too risky.. That whole argument was stupid to begin with, why can't you just trust people when they try to be nice?

"I-I'm sorry too," you apologized, "You were only trying to be nice, and I got mad about it." You averted your gaze to the ground once again, "It's just... Since we started out on bad terms, I didn't think to trust you when you actually tried to do something kind. I thought it would be like, a prank or something." You looked back up to see that Max now had his eyes to the ground, his arms folded as well. You continued, "But thinking back on when you said you cared about me, I think I believe you now.. Having things in common with each other, it really does feel like we're not alone. Like we can share things with each other, and not be judged because we can relate.." That sentence perked him up, and you both stared at each other for a few moments.

Max then broke the silence by saying, "I'm glad you finally realized all this. That took, what, 20 minutes?"

"Yeah, so I got emotional about nothing, story of my life, heheh," you forced a giggle, but Max frowned at your sentence.

"I wouldn't call it nothing. If I didn't care, I would call it that, but I'm still gonna clear up that rumor I started, because as fucking stupid as this sounds, I'm keeping my word; as long as we're not alone, then I care..."

You felt a genuine smile find it's way to your lips. When was the last time you made a genuine smile? "As long as we're not alone, then I care too, Max."

This was such a wholesome moment you and Max were suddenly having. One minute you're fighting about some stupid shit, then the next minute, you're saying you care about each other. What are you guys, a married couple? 

"So, uhh..." You were taken out of your own thoughts when you heard Max suddenly speak, "So before your whole weird monologue thing, you said something I didn't hear."

Your face began to lose it's color again. Noticing this, he asked in a now skeptical tone, "What was that last thing you mentioned?"

Your face then became super pale with worry. He can't know!

"Uhh, that was... Umm.. I-" You stammered.

Suddenly, your tent was opened by none other that David.

"Thank fucking god for you, David," You thought to yourself.

"Hey there, you two!" David cheerfully greeted you both, "Activities are starting, so let's head over to the mess hall! C'mon guys, follow me!"

"Oh what the fuck ever, David," Max became automatically pissy just after seeing David's happy face, but started to follow him after you stepped out of the tent first to do so.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the way there, David stood by your side. He so obviously wanted to say something to you, so he did. "Hey, Y/n," he began, "How're you feeling? You must still be a little shaken up after Nurf did all those really mean things to you."

"I'm a lot better actually," you replied with a slight smile, "Max gave me a little pep talk and cheered me up." 

"Wow!" David's response was somewhat amused, "Both of your relationships have developed so fast over the days! I'm glad you two are finally getting along."

"I wouldn't really say that, camp-man," Max butted in from behind, seemingly only hearing David's last statement, "she can still be annoying."

"And you can still be a dick," you retorted, causing you both to stick out your tongues at each other. 

David nervously laughed at your... Banter? Might as well be, since when has David seen Max being nice to someone?

(A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! This one was a little unimportant but I personally think each interaction helps keep the plot thicc. Pretty soon we will get to the juice guys, this is only the beginning! Stay tuned <3)


	13. Chapter 12

Everyone was in the mess hall doing their usual shit for about a half an hour or so, until David decided to call over Max to talk to him in private.

"The hell is it now, David?" Max asked him, already irritated, " I was just about to kick Space Kid in his "space nuts"."

"Well then, I'm glad I stopped you," David replied, in his usual cheerful tone. "The reason I called you over is because Y/n's new tent came in the mail this morning! So now, you can be alone in your sweet solitude once again! Isn't that great, Max?"

Max stared blankly for a few moments. He's supposed to be ecstatic right now, but he sure isn't feeling it. What is this feeling? Don't tell me... Is it fucking _disappointment?!_  

"...Max?" David tried once again to get some sort of reaction out of Max but... Maybe a few snaps of the fingers should do the trick, he's probably zoned out or something.

_*Snap snap snap*_

Max quickly shook his head, his eyes widened for a second as well, "O-oh wow. That's very... Good. Yaaay..." He said in a monotonous voice, was he still out of it, or does he not care?

"Well, I figured you'd say that!" David put a hand to the back of his neck, "But since I noticed how close you two have seemed to gotten, I put her tent right next to yours! So you're only a few steps away to a visit!"

"Right next to mine," Max repeated to himself, then he looked up at David, "So it's tent number twelve, right?"

"Yep! Number twelve, on the right!"

"Got it, see ya," He immediately walked off, leaving David off on a very abrupt note.

"...Y-you're welcome!"

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Once you stepped into the mess hall, that nervous pit in your stomach started to practically take over your body. A few eyes land on you; some weren't very inviting.

 Who are you going to approach? Who might be approaching _you?_ Should you just sit by yourself and see what happens? Jeez, why are you acting like it's your first day all over again? What are you even so afraid of-

"ABFL!" A voice cried, making you turn to the left. It was Nikki who was sitting next to Neil. They were probably the only people who didn't hate being around you. Nikki continued to eagerly wave you over as you walked towards them.

"Hi guys," You greeted them, not really knowing what else to say.

"Hey Y/n, we heard about what happened earlier, y'know, with Nurf," Neil said bluntly, but with a little concern.

You made a frustrated sigh, "Oh god, who else knows?"

"Only like 10 other people," Nikki replied, "It's no biggie."

That's pretty much everyone in the camp! You looked down to put your hands in your face in frustration. How the hell do they know??

"We all heard yelling, so we were watching from the window." Nikki told you, pretty much reading your mind.

"Let me tell ya," Neil butted in, "I've never seen Nurf so violent, I'm surprised you didn't shit your pants out there, I sure would've."

"My theory about him being an alien werewolf in a chubby human boy disguise still has yet to be debunked! I think all the evidence might be beginning to add up.."

"Can we please stop talking about this?" You said to them, desperately wanting to change the subject, "It's all in the past now, so just forget it..."

"Well, we're just glad you're okay, Y/n," Neil said as he put his hand on your shoulder. He suddenly looked to the ground with a solemn expression, "We wouldn't want another Scotty.."

"Yeah, poor Scotty," Nikki shook her head as it hung low. 

You stood there, confused.

"Hey assholes," Someone called out from the center of the mess hall, quickly gaining everyone's attention. Of course, it was Max. "I'm making this announcement to let everyone know that calling Y/n David 2.0 and all other retarded nicknames making fun of her is now officially lame. So stop." 

After saying that, Max swiftly turned around and walked out of the mess hall. Everyone was silent for a few seconds after the door shut, and then in came the whispers, probably filled with new gossip. What is this, a high school drama film?

"Well that was weird," Nikki blurted out.

What do ya know, he actually did it. You smiled to yourself as you stared at the mess hall's front doors; Max was actually trying to get the others to be nicer to you. He really has changed these past few days around you, definitely for the better.. You now realize this is no prank, far from it. He was really trying to start something. You loved it, you loved-

"Y/n? You okay?" Neil asked, standing in front of you.

"Ah!" You jumped back, not expecting him to suddenly be in front of you. Damn... You must've really been out of it, what else is new. "O-oh... Sorry," you continued, "I'm uhh... I'm gonna go get some air." You quicken your pace out the door to follow a certain someone before either of them could say a word..

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Once you stepped outside, you immediately smelled something that wasn't right. You detected right away that something was burning. It did _not at all_ smell like a campfire, plus it's broad daylight, so what idiot would start a campfire during the day? You look straight ahead, seeing the gray smoke rise into the sky,  _"Didn't Max go that way?"_ You ask yourself, now with a concerned expression. This is no time to stand around, it's time for action!

You practically bolted towards the smoke, hopefully you got there in time to see what was actually happening. The closer you got, the more you realized it was in the direction of your's and Max's tent. This was now on a brand new level of what the fuck.

"Max?" You called out, while still running towards where the fire may be. You got no response, only leaving you more concerned... Until you finally got to your destination.

Well, you found the fire, and you found Max. He was... Just watching a tent burn. You've never been more confused. Why was he just standing there, watching it burn?! Fire spreads super quickly! 

"Max!" You say in a panicked tone, causing Max to whip his head in your direction.

"U-umm!" His eyes flickered around his surroundings, trying to find something to blame, "Th-there's a fire."

"Yeah no shit!" You motion with your hand for him to come near you and get away from the burning tent, "Who's tent even is that?"

"No idea," Max quickly replied, running past you, "We should probably get David before this thing burns down the whole camp.."

You quickly follow behind him, deciding not to question how the fire even started...

**(A/n: another chapter done! I'm really sorry if these chapters aren't as good as my older ones, I hope I'm not losing my touch or something. Anyway, my first day of school starts on Monday and I'm about to fall into a 180 day depression once again. More chapters coming soon! Stay tuned <3)**


	14. Chapter 13

All the campers, including Gwen, watched as David forcefully tried to extinguish a burning tent with a fire extinguisher. Space Kid came in out of no where with a bucket of water and threw it onto the tent, that was now nothing but a pile of ashes. 

"I did it!" Space Kid exclaimed, putting his arms in the air victoriously. 

David wiped his brow with the back of his hand, "Thanks, Space Kid! You were a big help!"

"How the fuck did this even happen?" Gwen asked as she was walking towards David's side.

"I don't have a gosh darn clue, Gwen," David replied, "Good thing I didn't start putting Y/n's stuff in there."

Wait what? _Your_ stuff? Was this going to be your own tent?? You were about to comment on that, until Max cut you off.

"It had to be like a forest fire or something," He bluntly said to the counselors, "Obviously it was nature's natural selection, tent number twelve just wasn't meant to be."

"Forest fires?" Neil questioned Max's statement, "I don't see any burning trees, plus those aren't even common here."

"Jeez Neil, I thought you were the smart one," Max tried to retort, "Clearly the fire stopped, so all the other trees are probably looking like that now as well," He pointed to the remains of tent number twelve.

Neil had an unamused expression as he replied, "...That's not how it works-"

"Why are you questioning Mother Nature, Neil?!" Nikki pointed in his face, "Just let her live her life!"

Neil pinched the bridge of his nose and opened his mouth to reply, but David quickly interrupted their argument.

"Okay everyone!" He gained everyone's attention immediately, "The fire is officially out, so let's head back to the mess hall for some lunch!"

Some people cheered, and some people groaned as they all followed Gwen back to the mess hall for their... Meals?

"Hey Y/n," David quietly called out to you, making you stop in your tracks to look at him.

"Is this about that tent?" You ask him with your arms crossed, as he kneels down to your level.

"Yes," He replied, "I was going to surprise you, since I know you've been excitedly waiting for a tent of your own. I honestly don't know what could have happened for it to catch on fire out of the blue, but I'm sorry that the surprise got ruined. Do you forgive me?" He softly smiled at you, causing you to frown.

"This isn't even your fault, David, but... I guess I'll forgive you anyways," You put your hands in the pockets of your sweatshirt as you glanced at that pile of ashes. That was probably one of the most bizarre things you've seen happen at this bizarre camp. You still haven't gotten any reason as to why and how this has happened..

"Yay!" David jumped back onto his feet with a big smile, but then his expression went back to being a bit more serious, "I'm not sure if the camp has the budget to buy you another tent, but once we do, a new tent for you is my top priority!"

Thinking over what David had just said to you made you question what you _really_ wanted. Did you _want_ a tent all by yourself? Sleeping alone reminded you of being back at your house, and now you didn't even have your stuffed (animal) anymore! Whoa, a quick feeling of some awful anxiety rushes through your whole body for a split second.

"I.." You began, David's attention now was fully on you, "I think the camp should save their money on better things for now," You spoke quickly, "I really don't mind sharing the tent with Max, sure he gets moody, but he's not bad. You can buy a new tent for me when the camp has extra funds to spend.. Or something..." You tried to tell him this as nonchalantly as possible, but you still heard a small gasp come from David.

"So you two really _are_ getting along! Oh, I'm so happy!" David suddenly squished you into his chest, giving you possibly the tightest hug you've ever received. 

"Mmmfmhm mphmm.." You tried to speak as you squirmed out of his grasp.

"What was that?" David asked with that same smile as he let go of you.

You quickly stumbled backwards, but managed to still land on your feet, "Well, I thought my spine was broken for a second, but thank god it's not. Also I'm gonna pass on lunch today and head back to my tent for the day, I had a big breakfast," That was a blatant lie, you didn't even have breakfast, but a lot of shit happened to you today, and you just wanted to sleep.

David frowned at you, "But Y/n, the sky is still awake! There's still many things to do before the moon comes along!"

"I know," You replied, "But I'm so tired, David. Just this once? Please?" You gave him a look that instantly made him breakable. 

He sighed, his expression a bit sad, "Oh, alright. You get some good rest, okay Y/n?"

"Yep, thanks," You replied, instantly heading back into your tent.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**(Time Skip)**

You couldn't believe it was already the last day of camp. You had gotten to know everyone here so well, time really does fly when you're having fun. Most of the campers have already left with their parents that picked them up, except for you, Max, and Ered. 

"So, when do you think your parents are coming to pick you up, Y/n?" David asked you with his usual smile.

You shrugged, "I dunno, probably any minute now," That was a fucking lie. No one was coming for you, and you didn't know what to do. You bit your bottom lip as you watched another car approach the camp. Two men in black suits rolled down their passenger window and waved.

"That's my ride," Ered said cooly, "Bye dudes!"

"Farewell, Ered! We hope you had an amazing summer at Camp Campbell!" David enthusiastically waved goodbye as the car drove away with Ered in it, waving back.

Each car that drove over to pick up each and every camper gave you a stronger and stronger pit in your stomach. You knew this day would come, but you weren't exactly prepared for it. You weren't ready to be homeless..

"Jesus Christ, when the fuck are they coming to get me out of this hell-hole?" Max grunted to himself, his arms crossed as he stared at the ground.

"Hey Max," You suddenly blurted out, causing him to look at you. You didn't even realize you wanted to say anything yet, but your brain just went into autopilot for that moment. You might as well continue, you didn't want to make things awkward. 

"I-I just wanted to say... Thanks. Thanks for being by my side for these few months, and standing up for me, and making me feel better about myself. You have no idea how much all those amazing things you did means to me. But most importantly, thank you for just being you. I never thought I could make another friend ever again, hell, I never thought I could be happy ever again, until I met you. So thanks, thanks _so_ much, Max, for everything." You had small tears in the corners of your eyes as you said these things. You meant every word, and you truly didn't want to pour your heart and soul out to him now, of all moments, but when else was there? This was your last chance, and you did it. That's that.

You were expecting his uninterested expression to change as you said all those heartfelt things to him, but his eyes were still half-lidded, and his signature frown was still present. 

"Kay," he replied, then turned away, as if you just told him a simple "goodbye."

"W-what?" You were dumbfounded. Was he not listening the entire time you were showering him with compliments? Was _anyone_ listening? You look around for David and/or Gwen, but they're no where in sight! Where could they have gone? 

Another car suddenly pulled up to the camp, and the horn was honked a few times.

"Fucking finally!" Max exclaimed, seemingly relieved.

Your eyes started to water for different reasons now, as Max starting walking towards that car. Your pupils shrunk, realizing what was happening, and realizing how fucked your future was going to be.

"...N-no... Please.. Wait!" You tried to call after him, "Please don't leave!" You started to sob as he pulled open the car door. You felt the sky beginning  to rain..

"Stop! Come back! Please!" He didn't even acknowledge your desperate calls as he shut the door without hesitation. Unable to think of any other solution to slow him down, you immediately ran towards the now slowly moving vehicle. Sure, you felt like a maniac, but you didn't care. You needed something... _Anything!_

"YOU'RE ALL I HAVE!" You yelled, hoping he heard you over the now super loud rain and closed car windows, "I DON'T WANNA BE ALONE AGAIN!" The car started gaining speed once it was on the road. You followed it for a few more seconds, before tripping on your own feet and falling into the mud. You watched as the car drove further and further down the road until it was out of your sight. You laid there in the mud, defeated, with hot tears running down your cheeks, "Max..?" You called out one last time...

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Your eyes fluttered open from your slumber; your face felt wet as you slowly sat up. Looking to the right, you saw Max in his sleeping bag, blankly staring upwards. 

Once you saw Max, you were reminded of that morbid dream. Was it even a dream, or a look into the future? No no, that would be stupid. You can't stay here until the _last day,_  you have to bail _before_ everyone else goes home.. But where will you go? What if everyone finds out you're not going back home beforehand? What if one of the counselors finds your dad's contact information? What if your dad finds out you're here? What if-

You surprise yourself when a small sob escapes your mouth, along with some brand new tears. You saw Max's head turn in your direction, and he sat up as well.

"Y/n?" He said your name with a tone of both confusion and concern. You didn't reply; for some reason, you weren't expecting him to acknowledge you. "Are... Are you crying?" Still without getting a response, Max grabbed Mr. Honeynuts, and started walking towards your sleeping bag on the other side of the tent.

You watched him walk over to you, it was pretty dark out, but you still managed to see him sit down in front of you. "Did you have another nightmare?" He asked you calmly. You nodded in response. Pretty much while you were nodding, he handed you Mr. Honeynuts, like your answer was just as he expected.

You sniffled as you examined the bear once again, "Max, you really don't-"

"We've been through this a million times, Y/n," Max told you in a bit of an irritated tone, "Just take it for the night, okay?"

"Well... Okay.." You reluctantly agreed, which made Max smile a little. You softly smiled back.

"Great. See ya in the morning," Max suddenly stood up and started to walk away from you, which made your smile quickly fade as he left your side. You don't know why, but you felt a _bad_ deja vu.. The tears came back quicker than ever, like you were a baby and someone stole your lollipop. You had to do something _fast_.

"Please don't-" You cut yourself off, not expecting to be as loud as you were. Max quickly turned around to face you, startled, and for good reasoning. "...P-please don't...leave.." You finished your statement a lot quieter than before. Max just stood there, probably not knowing how to reply.

 _"Well that was pathetic,"_ you thought, mentally scolding yourself for even letting that sentence be heard by anyone. You needed to fix this right now.

"I'm sorry," you quickly apologized, "I just.. I-I'm still kinda fucked up from that Nurf thing.. So..-"

"Y'know what?" Max suddenly said, "Maybe this will make you feel better.." After saying that, he quickly walked over to his sleeping bag and grabbed it. You watched as he dragged his sleeping bag across the ground and over to your side of the tent. Then he did something you _never_  would have expected him of all people to do; he dropped his sleeping bag right next to yours.

"This okay with you?" He asked nonchalantly, while you were blushing like nobody's business.

"Y-yeah.. Sure," You barely managed to reply, as he laid down next to you. You couldn't believe he was willing to do this.. What is happening to your heart?

"Max?" Max turned his head to face yours. You both were only inches apart, and the both of you were blushing wildly as well.

"W-what?" He desperately tried to be his normal self, but it was so obvious in his tone that this was not a normal situation for him.

"Thank you," these two simple words that came from you made Max's heart feel all kinds of weird. His small smile made your heart feel the same sort of weird too...

**(A/n: hope you guys enjoyed the longer chapter! I put a lot of thought into this one, i always try to make sure that my ideas for this story come out the best way they can. i spent like 5 hours on this chapter and my first day of school is tomorrow :((( thank you guys so much for all the votes and hearts and reads so far, all your positive comments and feedback however is what really keeps me going! please let me know if you are enjoying the story so far, I would really appreciate it <3 more chapters coming soon! Stay tuned ;D)**


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